U.S. Congressman cautions about privacy concerns regarding CBDCs

• U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer believes that the introduction of CBDCs will jeopardize the financial privacy of American citizens.
• Emmer introduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act last month.

United States Congressman Tom Emmer believes that the introduction of programmable central bank digital currency in the country will jeopardize the financial privacy of American citizens.

Emmer explained yesterday (9 March) at the Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that the programmable CBDC could be easily weaponized as a spying tool to “choke out the politically unpopular activity.” The Minnesota congressman further added:

“As the federal government seeks to maintain and expand financial control to which it has grown accustomed, the idea of the central bank digital currency has gained traction within the institutions of power in the United States as a government-controlled programmable money that can be easily weaponized into a surveillance tool.”

CBDC goes against American values, claims Emmer

It was in February that Emmer introduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act to halt the development of the Digital Dollar Project which has witnessed significant changes in how it will be used since the second version of its white paper was released in January.

“Recent actions from the Biden Administration make it clear that they are not only itching to create a digital dollar but they are willing to trade Americans’ right to financial privacy for the surveillance-style CBDC,” added Emmer.

Emmer suggested that the blockchain-enabled ownership economy poses a threat to the Washington establishment by redistributing economic power away from centralized institutions into the hands of common citizens.

He believes that this system not only tracks transaction-level data down to the individual user but also gives the CBDC the ability to choke out the politically unpopular activity.

The Minnesota congressman also opined that decentralized cryptocurrencies can help to fix the mismanagement of the U.S. monetary system and restore many of the “American values” that helped the country become an economic powerhouse in the 20th century, such as privacy, individual sovereignty, and free markets.

He went on to say that even experimenting with CBDCs goes against these “American values.”